In 2017 more than two million middle and high school students used e-cigarettes, according to an FDA report.
[News-Journal/Nikki Ross]▲

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is stepping up their efforts to stop the "epidemic" use of e-cigarettes in adolescents by weighing the option of banning flavored products if the industry does not address the problem, according to an agency news release issued Wednesday.

The FDA issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers that illegally sold JUUL and other e-cigarette products to youth during a nationwide undercover investigation of stores and online retailers this summer, according to the release.

In Florida, 144 stores were cited for selling e-cigarette products to minors. The only store to receive a citation in Volusia and Flagler counties is the 7-Eleven at 100 N. Atlantic Ave., New Smyrna Beach. A person at the store declined comment when reached by phone.

In 2017 more than 2 million middle and high school students used e-cigarettes, according to an FDA report.

The FDA issued letters to the top five e-cigarette manufacturers Wednesday — JUUL, Vuse, MarkTen XL, blu e-cigs, and Logic — asking for them to submit a plan within 60 days detailing how they will address the widespread use and access of their products among adolescents. Failure to provide this plan could result in the removal of some or all of the brand's flavored products from the market.

"I believe certain flavors are one of the principal drivers of the youth appeal of these products," Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, said in a prepared statement. "We won't allow the current trends in youth access and use to continue, even if it means putting limits in place that reduce adult uptake of these products."

Gottlieb said the agency believes that the e-cigarettes are a better option for adults, but their availability "can't come at the expense of kids."

SOSEScript: ampanalytics.php5 failed executing with the following error:
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:1407742E:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert protocol version
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(): Failed to enable crypto
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(http://www.news-journalonline.com/?template=ampanalytics): failed to open stream: operation failed
Error on line 19 position 1: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()